Only this month, Boston University Professor Andrew Bacevich, a conservative skeptic of the military’s modern militarism, released Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, which in part explores blowback over the ever-expanding U.S. military presence worldwide.

But what’s it like being on the receiving end of our so-called global outreach?

Antiwar.com recently interviewed Thomas Fazi, co-director of Standing Army, a 90-minute documentary on the effects of America’s incredible post-World War II base expansion on the people who live with them and the efforts – most of them seemingly ineffectual – to get rid of them.

Still from the movie Standing Army.

"It all started back in 2006, when the Vicenza affaire exploded," explained Fazi, describing the protests over the planned expansion of a U.S. military base in the ancient city of Vicenza. The protests continued until last year when the construction was in full swing. "We weren’t satisfied with the coverage the mainstream media was giving of the story, we felt they weren’t asking the right, albeit obvious questions. Such as, ‘why is the U.S. interested in building a brand new military base in the heart of Northern Italy, 20 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall?’"

The Vicenza base isn’t new, but the current plans for Caserma Ederle would definitely change the landscape of the city, physically and demographically. The protests, as they say, were a bust. But as it turns out, the April release of Standing Army (trailer here) was timely in other ways: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned in June, after reneging on a campaign promise to move the unpopular U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma off the island Okinawa for good. Instead, the U.S. military wants to move forward on an earlier agreement that would move 8,000 Marines now stationed in Okinawa to Guam, but shift Futenma to a base on another part of the island, which would be expanded to accommodate a new airfield.

Okinawans protest enduring US bases.

The move is so unpopular with Okinawans, who bear the burden of almost half of the 47,000 U.S. military stationed in Japan, that the Japanese defense minister indicated in late July that the final details would likely be delayed.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Ginowan has vowed to sue Japan’s central government over the continued operation of Futenma, to which upwards of 81 percent of Okinawans are opposed, according to past polling.

"Since assuming office in April 2003, I have demanded to cease operations at the air station," said Mayor Yoichi Iha in a statement posted on the city’s Japanese language website. "Despite our repeated warnings about the danger, as well as noise pollution, the operations continue, spreading intolerable damage to our citizens."

Back in Italy, the Caserma Ederle base in Vicenza is home to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the 173rd Airborne Brigade and up until the recent expansion, brought some 9,000 soldiers, civilians, and families into the community of 110,000 local residents. The Italian government agreed back in 2005 to a 64,600 square foot expansion of its base, mostly utilizing part of an old Italian airfield on the other side of the city to build accommodations and other facilities for some 2,100 additional troops from the airborne brigade, which has been flying its soldiers in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of current operations there.

A protest in Vincenza, Italy, of the expansion of a WWII-era US base.

In 2007, more than 70,000 people took part in a protest against the expansion, which was opposed by some 70 percent of the community, according to reports at the time. Residents have lived (mostly) quietly with a U.S. presence in the region since World War II, but news of the new construction opened up myriad concerns over the impact of the increased foreign military presence on the small historic city. For its part, the U.S. military says it poured $230 million into the local economy in 2005 alone, and overall, has been a benefit, not a disadvantage to the city.

"The only people who can stop the construction of the new base at this point are probably the Americans themselves," said Fazi.

Though the numbers are slippery, most assessments indicate there are currently more than 750 U.S. bases across the globe (not counting Iraq and Afghanistan), with more than 255,000 military personnel deployed in more than 130 countries worldwide. This massive grid of American power and influence tells a complicated tale. Base agreements in places like Japan, Italy and Germany, date back to World War II. Under the current agreement with Japan, the U.S. provides the island nation’s primary national defense against foreign invasion in concert with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which is restricted in size and scope by the country’s constitution. Italy has a similar security agreement with the U.S.

U.S. bilateral security compacts span the gamut — from NATO contracts to Cold War alliances, agreements with Saudi kings and treaties with South American regimes. The U.S. military strategically "defends" allies, democratic or not, energy resources and political interests, all in return for a strategic perch in almost every corner of the earth. After 9/11, this network became a perfect platform for the Global War on Terror. Writing for The Atlantic in 2008, Robert Kaplan noted that while former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was touting a plan to bring 70,000 men and women home from antiquated overseas bases, he was retooling the "empire" for the 21st Century Long War:

Thus, by 2004, the Pentagon unveiled plans to bring home an additional 70,000 troops from those fixed garrisons, even as it moved to expand a network of bare-bones sites in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America to support rotational rather than permanently stationed forces. Such "lily pad" bases would be different from the "Little Americas" of the Cold War: no soldiers’ spouses, no kids, no day-care centers, no dogs, no churches…

The number of status-of-forces agreements with host countries doubled from the end of the Cold War through the end of Rumsfeld’s tenure, from 45 to over 90. And the Air Force signed more than 20 comparable gas-and-go agreements with countries in Africa while Rumsfeld was secretary of defense.

Kageyama Asako, Japanese activist and director/producer of Marines Go Home, said each country has its own issues with the American Big Brother. But everyone needs to look at the big picture.

"It is all too easy to see base struggles in isolation, but in reality there are similar issues in many places."

More from my interview with Fazi:

Antiwar: Please tell me what led you guys to this project.

We decided to grab a camera and go and try and make sense of what was happening by ourselves. As we investigated [the Vicenza protests] further, what was supposed to have been a fairly limited reportage on the Vicenza issue, slowly "ballooned" into something bigger and bigger. We soon realized that it didn’t make sense to talk of Vicenza without talking of the wider issue of the US presence in Italy (which includes 10 major bases and 100+ minor installations), and soon after that it didn’t make sense to talk about Italy without talking of the even wider issue of US bases in Europe, and by that point we had realized that what we had on our hands was a global issue and therefore deserved a global approach. Hence our trips to Okinawa and elsewhere. But it was all relatively "casual": the documentary evolved along with our growing understanding of the subject.

How much of an effect can the base expansion have on the city, and what are the primary reasons for the resistance?

Well, it’s very hard to gauge the concrete effects the new base will have on the city of Vicenza. The "direct" impact of the base on the everyday life of ordinary citizens will probably be fairly limited. The US military in Europe makes a big effort to keep its soldiers as much as possible out of people’s way, with a lot of effort going into having a good PR. (The situation is very different in Asia, where racial undertones still define the US military’s relationship with local populations, with serious consequences in terms of crimes and abuses against locals). You have to remember: Vicenza already hosts an important US base, the Caserma Ederle, but with the exception of US troops marching at dawn along the city’s streets (which admittedly might be unsettling for some) and crowds of young testosterone-fueled Americans gathering around the bars at night (and causing the occasional brawl), most vicentini aren’t given reason to give the current US presence much thought, and probably won’t give the future presence much thought either. Now, the "indirect" effects of the bases could be much more serious: a number of experts have denounced the fact that the new base will be built right on top of one of Italy’s largest water basins. Since military bases have been known to produce loads of toxic waste (which is often just dumped in the local riverways, as has happened in South Korea), the local activists’ concern for the basin is understandable. This said, a lot of the local protesters aren’t motivated simply by concerns about the effects the base would have on themselves and the city. There are much wider ethical and political questions at stake: what I call the "moral" impact of a base.

What does it say that the police have responded so aggressively?

Well, the Italian police is known for being one of the most repressive police forces in any Western country, so they don’t need much of an excuse to attack protestors. But generally, regarding Vicenza, there has certainly been an escalation in the use of force against anti-base protestors. I guess the government was hoping that the protests, as they fell on deaf ear after deaf ear at all levels of the political system, would just die out by themselves and when it saw that the activists weren’t giving up but were actually stepping up their campaign and gaining a growing global support, decided to clamp down.

Tell me a little bit about the other "standing armies" you address in the film, like in Japan. What are some common threads?

Well, as I said above, the impact of a base changes a lot from country to country. In Okinawa, for example, a lot of the opposition to the bases is due to the devastating impact these bases have on the local population in terms of environmental pollution, noise pollution, violent crimes (there have been many cases of rape against local women over the years) and the general militarization of the island’s land, air and sea. …

I would say the main common thread in the people’s opposition to US bases, though, is certainly opposition to war and militarism. Many people who decide to campaign against the US presence in their country (in Japan but also in Germany, in Italy, in Great Britain, in Australia, etc.) are moved to do so by the realization of the crucial role that these bases in America’s war-making efforts. One can beat around the bush as much as one likes, and it’s painful to admit it, but the attack on Iraq (just to give one example) was made possible, or was very much facilitated, by the troops, weapons, aircraft, vehicles and munitions transported to the Middle East from the many bases in Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Spain etc.

How has the last eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq affected peoples’ feelings about these American bases?

Well, it depends who you ask! If you asked someone in Iraq or Afghanistan, they’d probably tell you that a lot of people in these countries have come to realize that establishing bases was probably one of the long-term aims of both these wars. The US right now still controls dozens of massive military bases in Iraq, and will probably retain control over a number of them even after the official 2011 withdrawal… In Afghanistan the bases are even more widespread, running in the hundreds according some sources, although there are no official numbers. As for everyone else, I think 8 years of war are the proof that the US has definitely entered a stage of permanent warfare. And in such a context, there should be even less doubts as to why these bases are being built.

What did you learn during the making of the film — anything unexpected? What is the keymessage you hope will resonate with viewers?

Well, the sheer number of US installations around the world is staggering, and is something we weren’t entirely aware of. The official papers talk of 716 bases in 40 countries, but this number doesn’t include the bases present in war zones (such as Iraq or Afghanistan) or the ones considered politically sensitive, such as the ones in Israel. This is why Chalmers Johnson has estimated the number to be closer to 1,000.

As for the message, I guess it’s different for each viewer. But in general, I hope we’ve managed to show people that war isn’t just the bombs you see going off on TV. War is a system of permanent violence and destruction of which the bases are the clearest example; a system that at any given time, in hundreds of locations around the world, is polluting societies, cultures, people, and life in all its forms. I guess you could say that now more than ever, war is everywhere. And resistance should be too.

Arundhati Roy says "Another world IS possible: on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing…"

Montaigne

Hopefully, the costs will at some point become INTOLERABLE to the American population. If that only have the effect of drawing the troops back home to control the population, the rest of the world can become more normal – which is of course a very alarming development for imperialists when their presence are proven futile, but with no homeland vs. no empire, they must concentrate on their own population.

bogi666

FYI, as far as the gullible, ignorant, intellectually lazy , mindlessness American population they don't have a clue. The Pentagons/spy agencies are funded by the Treasury bond proceeds, deficit spending, which means interest payments must be added to the costs. Since this is the case future and past funding costs, including interest, must be summed as the current cost because the past costs are not paid off, only the interest for past costs. Simply put, it's like having an unlimited credit card, paying only the interest AND the interest can be added to the same credit card. If you think the mindlessness American individual taxpayers could comprehend this,you're thinking about another dimension.

bogi666

These foreign bases should be considered Pentagon Districts, like Congressional Districts without elections for the citizens located in the district, sort of like garrisons for the dictator. In this perspective the Pentagon has more constituent districts than the U.S. Congress which must be funded, their foreign constituencies exceed the number of Homeland constituencies, congress. Establishing these foreign bases is easily done, just bribe the necessary officials. It's a no brainer.

JLS

People in Europe need to attack the idea that the American military is absolutely necessary and if the Americans left the Soviets would immediately come marching through the streets. It is this cold war mentality that keeps Europe acting like America's little lapdogs.

That's part of it, I'll wager. The Great War happened after a relatively long period of peace and prosperity in Europe and elsewhere, and seemingly erupted all at once. I'm sure that thought is fresh in their minds. Anyone who traced the development of certain destructive ideas, particularly nationalism and statism, could see it coming, though. Pax Americana has been useful to the governments of Europe to keep them from actually having to deal in diplomacy, particularly with Russia.

E. A. Costa

After World War II the US systematically propped up the European bourgeois Capitalist parties and oligarchies including, as in Italy, interfering heavily in elections and making sure that genuine Leftists and Communists lost.

The effort was not publicized but was hugely funded and micromanaged by the CIA.

That was also what the Marshall Plan was about.

Politically this had nothing to do with the Soviets–in Italy, for example–which bore the brunt of the resistance against the native Fascists and the Germans, the Communist Party was a native development, very independent of Moscow, as it is still is.

The US, however, soon presented it as part of a global Cold War, in which it was the force of Light, and the Soviets the force of Darkness (that is, social and economic reform).

The West European oligarchs are still in power, though fighting a rearguard action, and but it is getting more and more expensive, as in Germany, to play the role of US ally and puppet.

That is also what NATO is all about.

The situation is more fluid than it looks, especially in the mainstream media.

The "Third Way" is just another rearguard action, as is "Capitalism with social welfare", which the Capitalists in the Scandinavian countries, for example, try to foist off as "Socialist".

Check out the brilliant Swedish film "Du levande", for example.

This also explains the bad joke of the supposedly "socialist" Norwegians and their absurd Nobel Peace prize.

Slavoj Zizek makes the interesting point that many of the West European Communists are behaving as if they really don't want to win elections and take power at the moment. He may be right–the mess is so vast, including the global debt credit catastrophe engineered by the US financial capitalists, it may be better just to bide time, though in Greece the fissures are beginning to manifest violently.

Ann Mican

Any country that has corrupt, fascist leadership ( eg. Berlusconi ) will be enamored by "partnerships" with the U.S. Military and its sycophant, the military-industrial complex.

Ann

Ann Mican

Italy is not the only country where the U.S. military has strategically located itself over the major watersheds of its host counrty. In Paraguay, where the US military base sits next to the headwaters that feed the rivers to the entire southern cone of Latin America, George Bush owns thousands of acres of the adjoining land to that base. His land just happens to sit on major natural gas reserves and water.

Ann

E. A. Costa

Yes, Paraguay will crack one of these days.

There is a vast new movement afoot in Latin America in which even the right and center are saying, "Yangui go home–we will deal with our own problems and we don't need your Empire."

JLS

wtf are we doing in Paraguay? Amazing how not one thing in the entire universe is beyond Washington's concern. is there one square inch of the galaxy that the US government doesn't claim jurisdiction over?

Rob

I am not near as impressed with the so called power that American military bases project in the countries they are in or around the world. These bases cannot stop crime or the 1 trillion plus underground economy. These bases have not been able to defeat the guerrillas the US have fought for the last 50 years or so. Guerrillas own warfare and almost always defeat their military foes. The US military cannot fight it's way out of a guerrilla paper bag and has not won a guerrilla war in 108 years (the Philippine insurrection of 1902). There are many bases in war zones like iraq and Afghanistan and the US military cannot win .The late Col. David Hackworth, who was our most decorated living soldier said on his website Defending America: "We have troops stationed in bases in over 120 nations around the world, most of them are not doing anything but pissing off the locals."

E. A. Costa

Hackworth was one of a kind.

andy

How would Americans like it if their country was occupied by bases of foreign troops?

To MS Wildman: “Why the U.S. Drawdown in Iraq is met with Apathy” in Politics Daily.

Great article… BUT it brought back all those bad memories and dark days of Bush/Cheney. I think that’s why so many Americans just don’t give a damn anymore, they’ve been beat down by the HORROR of Bush/Cheney.

Isn’t odd how the mainstream media all but ignored MILLIONS of anti-war protestors in the USA and around the world, even to this day. But just let 20 or so Tea Party fanatics get together and the news is all over them… ODD!

NOTE: (I don’t think the Obama people realize it wasn’t any one thing they did that won them the election… The reason they won is because they were the furthest thing the American PEOPLE could find from Bush/Cheney)

Here’s my take:
I know it’s a stretch… but for arguments sake lets say Americans can conveniently forget about the 5000+ dead, 30,000+ wounded US soldiers and only GOD knows how many Iraqis and Afghanis. Forget that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove took the good will of the world after 9/11 and turned it to HATE and mistrust.

How these chicken hawks sent our troops into battle WITHOUT PROPER ARMOR or any clear cut plan beyond George W. declaring “Mission Accomplished”. Never mind military strategists didn’t think it was a good idea to get rid of the ONE dictator (Saddam Hussein) in the Middle East that had an IRON BOOT on the throat of fanatical Islam. Remember… the terrorist, Osama bin Lunatic, degenerates that caused 9/11?

The TRILLIONS of dollars wasted in Iraq or the 20 BILLION dollars missing or the 175,000 weapons misplaced or all the arms dealers and WAR profiteers that milked our national treasury. FORGET about all the Constitutional VIOLATIONS, domestic spying, bold lying, Justice Dept. bias, Walter Reed, Abu Ghraib, soldiers getting electrocuted in showers due to shoddy military contractor work…

YEAaaaaa… once again, imagine we live in a country where almost half the population is dumber than a tree full of monkeys. These citizens are so damn ignorant they allowed some of the worst criminals in history bend them over and #*~/ them in the *** for 8 years. Even worse these numbskulls LIKED IT so much they want MORE!

IF THE READER CAN POSSIBLY FORGET ALL THAT… then the WORST thing the Bush Administration DID was NOT raise taxes to pay for the WARS, tax cuts for the rich and Medicare Part iDiot. You want to hear about Fiscal Irresponsibility GRANDE?

Instead, Bush/Cheney borrowed from COMMUNIST China and Saudi Arabia (at outrageous interest rates) AND put OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN under the thumb of MASSIVE FOREIGN DEBT!

If there’s ANYONE out there who can explain away Bush/Cheney Administration CRIMES please reply because I’m NOT GETTING IT! Funny how we never heard any complaints from the so-called Tea Party crowd while Bush/Cheney were spending our national wealth like a crack HO with a credit card.

As a Marine stationed on MCAS Futenma, I can say that the protests are understandable. You get a few thousand Marines cooped up on an island and some bad things are going to happen, but some good things happen as well. Like the fact there are plenty of events where the bases here open, and local citizens are welcome. You should see how packed the pizza places get on those days! For as many protests that occur, it's clear that we're not welcome by many citizens, but more citizens appreciate us and do want us here. With roughly 25,000 Marines on the island, when an incident occurs where we are "locked down" and cannot leave the base, in a matter of days the Okinawans are screaming for us to be let out, as the local economy suffers. It's not an issue that's cut and dry. We've been here for 65 years, so much of the econmy functions simply by us being here.

ericsiverson

When over 70 % of the locals wou;d rather have the american troops leave , why dont we ? Japan , Italy Germany Sebia Bosnia All most evrey country would rather not have Foreign troops on their soil . United States has a long time ago become a unwanted pest allover the world . I dont think we would like foreign soliers here walking around with guns

MichaelKenny

Two points. The only purpose of the US empire in the post-cold war world is to prop up Israel, which wouldn't last five minutes if it wasn't propped up by its American bully. That, in itself, generates resentment of US bases in Europe since people see themselves being unwillingly dragged into someone else's fight. Also, given that military aircraft need permision to overfly countries, the US needs bases with access to international airspace over the Med. Hence the expansion of bases in Italy while bases are being closed in Germany. Secondly, the lily pad thing indicates that the US realises that it is unwelcome and that military families are largely sitting ducks. That fear will essentially turn the bases into "combat" bases and will further alienate the local population. And, of course, the $64000 question: how long will the US have the $64 zillion dollars needed to fund all those bases? It is that, I think, which will ultimately decide the issue.

charles coryn

Why don't we?? Why don't we? It's our destiny to be everywhere, that's why. We won the world in 1945 apparently, we had most of the world's gold, and we were riding high on a 'God is my Copilot' mentality. Somehow I think the notion of the USA as a 'Christian' nation gave us an aura of a nation that could do no wrong, a nation that could lead the world and the world would welcome us with open arms.

Well, it's obvious now how that has gone, one has only to read Michael Hudson's 'SuperImperialism' to sort out the details. And so much for the idea of a 'Christian' nation that can dominate the world, that can only do good in the world. The horrors of yet another Iraq, of yet another Afghanistan, are well within the idiotic concept of a 'just' war. And to warriors like Bush and Cheney, how can we lose if God is on our side…..

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer, is a longtime
political reporter for FoxNews.com and
a contributing editor at The American Conservative.
She is also a Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine. Her Twitter account is @KelleyBVlahos.